The present invention relates to vehicle seats that fold flat to a substantially horizontal load supporting position and more particularly to such vehicle seats that provide a maximized cargo area having a large substantially flat area for supporting cargo thereon when in their substantially horizontal load supporting position.
Multi-seat vehicles, such as vans, minivans, sport utility vehicles, and the like, typically have middle (second row) and rear (third row) vehicles seats that are placed rearwardly of the driver""s and front passenger""s (first row) vehicle seats. The second and third row seats are typically selectively removable and replaceable through a large rear or side door in order to ready the vehicle for carrying cargo. Removal and replacement of these vehicle seats tends to be somewhat difficult and requires a considerable amount of effort on the part of the user, especially with respect to the middle vehicle seat.
To overcome this problem, many second and third row seats, and even some first row passenger seats, are configurable from an upright occupiable configuration to a substantially horizontal load supporting position, whereat the back surface of the seatback member presents a load supporting surface. Typically, such seatback members are pivotally mounted on the seat cushion members and are forwardly foldable over the seat cushion member by means of simple pivotal movement of the seatback member. There are various significant problems presented by such prior art vehicle seats.
Firstly, the back surfaces of the second row and third row seats, when in the forwardly folded position, are not large enough to cover any more than about half of the cargo area of the vehicle. Thus, such seats present no large substantially flat overall platform for supporting cargo thereon.
Another problem with such vehicle seats in their substantially horizontal load supporting position is that there tends to be a gap between longitudinally adjacent seats, or in other words between the first row and second row seats, and between the second row and third row seats. Such gaps tends to permit objects to fall between longitudinally adjacent seats or become caught between them during, for example, loading. Accordingly, the existence of such gaps is highly undesirable.
Also, in a vehicle having vehicle seats wherein the seatback member merely pivots over the seat cushion member to a forwardly folded position, the back surface of the folded seatback is disposed at a substantial distance above the floor of the vehicle. Accordingly, the vertical distance between the top surface of the forwardly folded seatbacks and the roof of the vehicle is not maximized, thus significantly reducing the available cargo storage space between the back surface of the folded vehicle seats and the roof of the vehicle. In order to try to maximize this cargo storage space, more recent minivans have second row and third row seats that fold to a relatively low profile load supporting configuration adjacent the vehicle floor. One such vehicle seat can be seen in U.S. Pat. No. 6,012,755, issued Jan. 11, 2000, to Hecht et al, for a Foldable Automotive Seat, and another such vehicle seat can be found in U.S. Pat. No. 5,588,707, issued Dec. 31, 1996 to Bolsworth et al, for a Folding Seat. In each of these vehicle seats, the legs of the vehicle seat are pivotally attached to the seat cushion and pivotally attached to the floor of the vehicle. Such pivotal attachment allows the seat cushion to be moved to a lowered position adjacent to the vehicle floor. However, in both of these prior art seat assemblies, the seatback merely folds forwardly about a pivot axis over the seat cushion, such that the back surfaces of the respective seatbacks of such vehicle seat assemblies are necessarily disposed at a height above the level of the top of the seat cushion. While this type of arrangement represents an increase in the amount of cargo space available between the top surface of the forwardly folded seatbacks and the roof of the vehicle over the prior art, further maximization of such cargo carrying capacity is desirable.
Other prior art attempts at trying to maximize cargo space are disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 5,890,758, issued Apr. 6, 1999 to Pone et al; and U.S. Pat. No. 5,979,964, issued Nov. 9, 1999 to Ban et al; wherein second row or third row vehicle seats are manually movable from their upright occupiable configuration to a stored position within a recess in the vehicle floor. A separate cover is placed over the recess to present a substantially flat platform for receiving cargo thereon, which separate cover is expensive to manufacture and requires extra time and effort to move into and out of place. Further, a specially formed vehicle floor is required, which is costly and presents undesirable design constraints.
Another problem associated with vehicle seats that are designed to move from an upright occupiable configuration to a substantially horizontal load supporting position, which vehicle seats are designed to maximize cargo space, is that a plurality of manual manipulations or movements are required to move the vehicle seats from their upright occupiable configuration to their substantially horizontal load supporting position, which is extremely inconvenient. Further, the control mechanisms that must be manipulated so as to permit and/or cause such movement of the vehicle seat are unduly complicated, and in many cases, more than one such control mechanism is required.
Another significant problem encountered during the forward folding of a seatback member over the seat cushion member is that of interference between the headrest of the seatback member being forwardly folded with a part of the vehicle""s interior disposed immediately in front of it. For instance, a front passenger seat headrest might hit the dashboard upon forward folding of its seatback and the headrest of a second row seat, or a third row seat, might hit the rear of the seatback disposed immediately in front of it during such forward folding. Such interference precludes the seatback member from forthwith reaching its fully forwardly folded position, which is unacceptable. Thus, in the prior art, in order to permit the seatback member to reach its fully forwardly folded position upon encountering such interference, it is necessary for the user to manually manipulate the various latching mechanisms of the seat assembly being folded, and manually move the seat assembly rearwardly to a longitudinal position whereat the headrest of the seatback member clears the dashboard or seatback immediately in front of it. Such additional manual manipulation is inconvenient, time-consuming, and unnecessary. Additionally, a person may forget to move, or even forego moving, the vehicle seat assembly to a longitudinal position whereat it clears the object in front of it, thus potentially resulting in damage to either the headrest of the seatback being folded, or to the object it impacts.
It is therefore an object of the present invention to provide a vehicle seat that moves from an upright occupiable configuration to a substantially horizontal load supporting position, wherein a large substantially flat platform that covers a significant portion of the cargo area, is presented.
It is another object of the present invention to provide a vehicle seat that moves from an upright occupiable configuration to a substantially horizontal load supporting position, wherein any gap between longitudinally adjacent seats is minimized, or rendered substantially nonexistent.
It is another object of the present invention to provide a vehicle seat that moves from an upright occupiable configuration to a substantially horizontal load supporting position, wherein the vertical distance between the top surface of the forwardly folded seatbacks and the roof of the vehicle is maximized, thus maximizing cargo storage space.
It is yet another object of the present invention to provide a vehicle seat that moves from an upright occupiable configuration to a substantially horizontal load supporting position, which vehicle seat does not require a specially formed seatback or an extra panel to present a substantially flat platform for receiving cargo thereon.
It is a further object of the present invention to provide a vehicle seat that moves from an upright occupiable configuration to a substantially horizontal load supporting position, which vehicle seat does not require a specially designed vehicle floor.
It is a further object of the present invention to provide a vehicle seat that moves from an upright occupiable configuration to a substantially horizontal load supporting position through manual manipulation of a single seatback control means, such as a seatback latch.
It is yet a further object of the present invention to provide a vehicle seatback that preadjusts to its longitudinal position within the vehicle relative to the seat cushion member so that the seatback member (or its headrest), does not hit that part of the vehicle""s interior disposed immediately in front of it when the seatback member is being forwardly folded from an upright occupiable configuration to a substantially horizontal load supporting position.
It is still a further object of the present invention to provide a vehicle seat that moves from an upright occupiable configuration to a substantially horizontal load supporting position, which vehicle seat is simple and inexpensive to manufacture.
It is yet a further object of the present invention to provide a vehicle seat that moves from an upright occupiable configuration to a substantially horizontal load supporting position, wherein the back surface of the seatback assumes a level at or below the top surface of the seat cushion member without the need for floor recesses and the like.
In accordance with the present invention there is disclosed a vehicle seat assembly for installation on a floor of a vehicle having a longitudinal axis, the floor having a stop means positioned behind the seat assembly when so installed. The seat assembly comprises a seat cushion member mountable on the floor; and a seatback member having inboard and outboard sides, a loadable back surface extending between a lower extent and an upper extent, and at least one lockable member mounted on the seatback member adjacent the lower extent thereof. The seatback member is movable between a generally upright occupiable configuration in which the loadable back surface is positioned in a generally rearwardly facing, vertical orientation and the at least one lockable member is retained in closely held juxtaposed proximity to a rearward extent of the seat cushion member, and a substantially horizontal load supporting configuration in which the loadable back surface is positioned in a generally horizontal, upwardly facing relation and the at least one lockable member is rearwardly displaced from the closely held juxtaposed proximity. A locking means is operatively mounted on the seat cushion member and adapted to be selectively movable between a locked configuration whereat the at least one lockable member is retained by the locking means in the closely held juxtaposed proximity, and an unlocked configuration wherein the at least one lockable member is released by the locking means from the closely held juxtaposed proximity. A link means is operatively interconnected between the seatback member and the seat cushion member for controlling movement of the seatback member relative to the seat cushion member between the generally upright occupiable configuration and the substantially horizontal load supporting configuration when the locking means is in the unlocked configuration. A roller means is operatively mounted on the seatback member adjacent the lower extent for supporting the seatback member in rolling relation as it moves between the generally upright occupiable configuration and the substantially horizontal load supporting position.
Other advantages, features and characteristics of the present invention, as well as methods of operation and functions of the related elements of the structure, and the combination of parts and economies of manufacture, will become more apparent upon consideration of the following detailed description and the appended claims with reference to the accompanying drawings, the latter of which is briefly described hereinbelow.